reduplication in Siouan languages

[BARudes at aol.com]

On reduplication, Catawba also exhibits reduplication (but only of verb 
roots).  It is used to express continued or sustained action in space or 
time, as well as intensification and distribution of the action.  Examples 
are: w’aN?hire: ‘one jumps’, waN?w’aN?hire: ‘one hops, one keeps on 
jumping’; bú:?hire: ‘it sparks, flashes, shoots (of a gun)’, bu:?b’u:?nire: 
‘it sparkles’; k’a:?hire: ‘one hits it’, ka:?k’a:?hire: ‘one beats it, one 
strikes it repeatedly’.
 
On the etymology of the root haN- ‘night’, the Catawba word for night 
(w’ic^a:w) is unrelated, but there is a verb h’aNnapire: ‘one passes the 
night, one spends the night’ which probably contains a cognate.
 
On the issue of winter used in counting years, all of the Northern Iroquoian 
languages use the root for winter when stating how many years old someone or 
something is.  In addition, in Tuscarora, the root for winter (Proto-Northern 
Iroquoian *-ohsr-) evolved into the regular word for year, and a new word for 
winter was created.
 
On the subject of the origin of /mn/ clusters, the Catawba cognate to La 
yamni ‘three’ is ná:mina. The /i/ in the word may be epenthetic, since /i/ 
occurs elsewhere in the language to break up consonant clusters. (Catawba 
does not exhibit cognates for lake, water, flat or smell).  The Catawba form 
suggests that, at least in pre-Proto-Siouan, the word had an *mn cluster.
 
Blair 

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